Highlights about NRC

Quick facts

• Approximately 4,000 employees and 1,500 visiting workers
• Some fifty facilities nationwide, including in Victoria, Vancouver, Penticton, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, London, Cambridge, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boucherville, Saguenay, Fredericton, Moncton, Halifax, Charlottetown, St. John's
• NRC's Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) has offices in over 100 communities across Canada
• Planned budget for 2013 is approximately $900 million
• NRC's four business lines: Strategic Research and Development, Technical Services, Management of National Science and Technology Infrastructure, and IRAP
• NRC's three research divisions: Engineering, Emerging Technologies, and Life Sciences
• NRC's portfolios: Aerospace; Aquatic and Crop Resource Development; Automotive and Surface Transportation; Construction; Energy, Mining, and Environment; Human Health Therapeutics; Information and Communications Technologies; Measurement Standards and Science; Medical Devices; National Science Infrastructure; Oceans, Coastal, and River Engineering; and, Security and Disruptive Technologies

Chronology and key milestones

1916 – NRC established through the NRC Act

1930s – New NRC laboratories built in Ottawa

1940s – Invention of the pacemaker

1950s – Development of canola

1960s – Development of the crash position indicator and the cesium atomic clock

1970s – Development of computer animation technology

1980s – Development of the Canadarm

2007 – Government releases Canada's new science and technology strategy: Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage

2009 – Canada's Economic Action Plan launched; unprecedented investment in science and technology, including $200 million for IRAP over two years

2010 – Group of independent experts tasked with reviewing federal support to research and development

2011 – Review of Federal Support to Research and Development — the Jenkins Report — released in the fall of 2011 by an expert panel; called for a simplified and more focused approach to research and development funding provided by the federal government

2012 – Economic Action Plan 2012 permanently doubles IRAP funding and supports the refocusing of NRC

2013 – Economic Action Plan 2013 provides an additional $121 million in support of the refocusing of NRC, as well as $20 million for new IRAP pilot program

Spring 2013 – Refocused National Research Council of Canada is officially launched

2016 – The National Research Council of Canada will celebrate its 100th Anniversary